xliv 



MEMOIR 



A student 

 in Genoa. 



With the return of quiet, and the reopening of the uni- 

 versities, we behold a new character, Signor Flaminio : the 

 professors, it appears, made no attempt upon the Jenkin ; and 

 thus readily italianised the Fleeming. He came well recom- 

 mended ; for their friend Ruffini was then, or soon after, raised to 

 be the head of the University ; and the professors were very kind 

 and attentive, possibly to Ruffini's protege, perhaps also to the 

 first Protestant student. It was no joke for Signor Flaminio 

 at first ; * certificates had to be got from Paris and from Rector 

 Williams ; the classics must be furbished up at home that he 

 might follow Latin lectures ; examinations bristled in the path, 

 the entrance examination with Latin and English essay, and 

 oral trials (much softened for the foreigner) in Horace, Tacitus 

 and Cicero, and the first University examination only three 

 months later, in Italian eloquence, no less, and other wider 

 subjects. On one point the first Protestant student was moved 

 to thank his stars : that there was no Greek required for the 

 degree. Little did he think, as he set down his gratitude, how 

 much, in later life and among cribs and dictionaries, he was to 

 lament this circumstance ; nor how much of that later life he 

 was to spend acquiring, with infinite toil, a shadow of what he 

 might then have got with ease and fully. But if his Genoese 

 education was in this particular imperfect, he was fortunate in 

 the branches that more immediately touched on his career. The 

 physical laboratory was the best mounted in Italy. Bancalari, 

 the professor of natural philosophy, was famous in his day ; 

 by what seems even an odd coincidence, he went deeply into 

 electro-magnetism ; and it was principally in that subject that 

 Signor Flaminio, questioned in Latin and answering in Italian, 

 passed his Master of Arts degree with first-class honours. 

 That he had secured the notice of his teachers, one circumstance 

 sufficiently proves. A philosophical society was started under 

 ths presidency of Mamiani, ' one of the examiners and one of 

 the leaders of the Moderate party ; ' and out of five promising 

 students brought forward by the professors to attend the sittings 

 and present essays, Signor Flaminio was one. I cannot find that 

 he ever read an essay ; and indeed I think his hands were other- 



